GRAND FORKS, N.D. –
A.J. Plitzuweit recorded 18 of his 27 points in the second half including 11 straight at one point, but hot shooting from North Dakota gave them the 85-76 win on Saturday afternoon inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
The game is the first of two of the series with the second game set for 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. USD (11-8, 9-2 Summit) records back-to-back losses for the first time since mid-December and moves to second place in the League standings. North Dakota (7-15, 6-7 Summit) records its third straight victory over the Yotes and second of this season after defeating USD at the Dakota Showcase in Sioux Falls.
Both teams shot over 40 percent from the field in the game, but the story was UND's shooting performance from deep. The Fighting Hawks sunk 14-of-23 from beyond the arc for 60.9 percent on the night. USD or Plitzuweit rather caught fire in the second half sinking 4-of-the-6 3-pointer's the Yotes made in the second stanza. Overall, USD shot 42.1 percent (8-of-19) from deep and 43.1 percent (28-of-65) from the field while the Fighting Hawks shot 47.5 (28-59) from the field.
Individually for the Yotes, Plitzuweit led the charge in the second half as mentioned and finished with 27 points and three dimes while
Stanley Umude recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 26 points and 13 rebounds. Umude also recorded three dimes and had three steals on the afternoon.
For UND, the lone senior Bentiu Panoam finished with 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting to lead the Fighting Hawks. Three other UND players recorded double-digit scoring in Ethan Igbanugo (15), Filip Rebraca (13) and Seybian Sims (11).
"They shot it well," head coach
Todd Lee said. "They had guys that don't normally make a lot of three's make some tonight. So, they did really shoot well from the perimeter. We didn't do a good job defensively, it's tough to win games on the road when the opponent shoots that well."
The Yotes jumped out to an early 11-4 lead with just over five minutes gone in the first half, but UND shook off its cold start to tie things at 21-all after a Brady Danielson 3-pointer with 8:45 left in the first half. The Hawks continued to heat up and took a 38-32 lead into the intermission.
UND extended its lead to 10 points, the largest of the game thus far with 14:30 left after a Panoam long ball. The Yotes used a 5-0 run to force Paul Sather to call a timeout leading 54-49 with 12:22 left, but coming out of the timeout North Dakota sunk back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 11.
It seemed the Hawks had an answer for every USD run, that is until Plitzuweit reeled off 11 straight points coming out of the under eight media timeout to give the Yotes a one point lead at 72-71 with 4:56 left. However, that's as close as the Yotes would get as the home team would outscore the visitors from the south 14-4 over the final four minutes and change.
USD recorded 32 points in the paint compared to UND's 26 and outrebounded the Hawks 40-32.
